Access schemes for drive-specific read/write parameters

ABSTRACT

A system includes a read/write controller removably coupled to a storage drive. Responsive to detection of a coupling between the read/write controller and the storage drive, the read/write controller retrieves key information from the storage drive, uses the key information to locate adaptives associated with the primary storage medium, and loads the adaptives into volatile memory to configure read/write settings for access to the primary storage medium.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/389,791, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,776,010,filed on Apr. 19, 2019 and titled “Access Schemes for Drive-SpecificRead/Write Parameters,” which is hereby incorporated by reference forall that it discloses or teaches.

SUMMARY

A method disclosed herein includes detecting a new coupling to a storagedrive including a primary storage medium; retrieving key informationfrom the storage drive responsive to the detection; and using the keyinformation to locate and load the adaptives into working memory toconfigure the system controller for access to the primary storagemedium.

A system disclosed herein includes a read/write controller removablycoupled to a storage drive including a primary storage medium. Theread/write controller is configured to retrieve key information from thestorage drive responsive to detection of a coupling to the storagedrive; use the key information to locate adaptives associated with theprimary storage medium; and load the adaptives into working memory toconfigure settings (e.g., read/write settings and security settings) foraccess to the primary storage medium.

A computer readable memory device disclosed herein encodes instructionsfor executing a computer process comprising: detecting a couplingbetween a read/write controller and a storage drive including a primarystorage medium and reading adaptives for the primary storage medium froma first zone of the primary storage medium responsive to detection ofthe coupling, the adaptives being stored at a lower linear density thanother data in the first zone.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Otherfeatures, details, utilities, and advantages of the claimed subjectmatter will be apparent from the following more particular writtenDetailed Description of various implementations and implementations asfurther illustrated in the accompanying drawings and defined in theappended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary storage system including a storage drivethat lacks traditional storage and processing resources for storing andloading adaptives utilized to access a primary non-volatile storagememory within an enclosure of the storage drive.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example storage drive that lacks traditionalstorage and processing resources for storing and loading adaptives thatconfigure the storage drive for access to a primary storage medium.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example storage drive that lacks traditionalstorage and processing resources for storing and loading adaptives thatconfigure the storage drive for access to a primary storage medium.

FIG. 4 illustrates yet another example storage drive that lackstraditional storage and processing resources for storing and loadingadaptives to configure the storage drive for access to a primary storagemedia.

FIG. 5 illustrates another example storage system including multiplestorage drives that implement the disclosed technology and removablycouple to a shared control board.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

Prior to reading and writing data to a storage medium, a device storagecontroller typically loads a set of drive-specific parameters, referredto herein as “adaptives,” into working memory (e.g., volatile memory).These adaptives are, for example, factory-determined read/write settingsfor configuring a read/write controller to read data from or write datato a particular storage medium with an error rate within an acceptablepredefined margin. As used herein, “adaptives” refer to drive-specificparameters used in data access operations that may differ from onestorage medium to another and/or from one storage device to another,even when those storage devices and/or storage media have identicaltechnical specifications (e.g., type, capacity).

Adaptives are utilized in several different types of storage devices.One adaptive parameter in hard drive devices (HDDs) is fly heightand—more specifically, the variables utilized by the drive to compute atransfer function that relates heater power to the storage device's flyheight, allowing the storage device to precisely control the height atwhich its read/write elements hover above the media when reading andwriting data. In contrast, adaptives stored by a solid state device(SSD) may include the precise voltage levels needed to accuratelyprogram different levels within each multi-level cell (MLC). In tapedrives, adaptives that may be stored on a tape include identifiersregarding what family of tape the tape belongs to, usage statistics,etc.

Additional examples of adaptives include, without limitation, the tracksper inch (TPI) of a disk, a track identifier of the first track that aread/write head may “see” when leaving a loading ramp, head-specificchannel parameters, bad sectors/cells, available storage capacity,parameters identifying a type of data management implement (e.g.,shingled magnetic recording, interlaced magnetic recording, conventionalmagnetic recording), laser parameters in drives that utilizeheat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), microwave parameters in drivesthat utilize microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), location offaulty sectors or media defects, etc.

In many cases, adaptives are determined during initial factorycalibrations of a storage device. Traditionally, adaptives used foraccessing a storage device's primary storage medium are stored in asecondary storage medium of the storage device. For example, some olderhard drive devices (HDDs) store adaptives in local EPROM, while newerHDDs may store adaptives in Flash on a printed circuit board assembly(PCBA) of the storage device. In contrast, solid state devices (SSDs)typically store adaptives for accessing a primary storage medium on aseparate secondary storage medium (e.g., a system memory zone) managedby the SSD controller.

The growing use of cloud-based storage solutions has driven demand forlow-cost data storage systems capable of retaining large volumes ofdata. In recent years, this demand has driven development of storagesolutions with read/write control circuitry shared between groups ofhot-swappable drives. In these systems, some or all of the read/writecontrol electronics traditionally included within each individual drivemay be displaced from the drive's enclosure to a shared control boardwith an interconnect that couples the read/write control electronics toseveral different drives. These read/write control electronics locatedon the shared control board may generate the read/write control signalsto control data access to each of multiple drives concurrently coupledto the control board. In at least some implementations, the generatedread/write control signals are analog.

Some of these systems with centralized, shared read/write controlsinclude drive enclosures designed to removably couple to a sharedcontrol board for individual drive replacement and servicing. Thesedrives may individually lack memory and secondary storage traditionallyused to store, access, and load adaptives. When these types of resourcesare displaced from individual drive enclosures to locations shared bymultiple drives, challenges arise relating to how and where theseadaptives are stored and accessed.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary storage system 100 including a storagedrive 108 that lacks traditional storage and processing resources forstoring and loading adaptives utilized to access (read data from orwrite data to) a primary non-volatile memory 106 within an enclosure ofthe storage drive 108. The primary non-volatile memory 106 may includeone or more types of non-volatile storage media including, for example,magnetic disks, optical drives, flash, etc. Data blocks within theprimary non-volatile storage memory 106 collectively comprise a “mainstore,” which refers to a collection of physical data blocks mapped to arange of logical block addresses (LBAs) utilized by a host device whenreading and writing data to the data storage device.

The storage drive 108 is coupled to a shared control board 102 thatincludes read/write control electronics 110 for generating the read andwrite signals to access the primary non-volatile memory 106 as well asthe read and write signals for accessing primary non-volatile memorywithin other drives that are also coupled to the shared control board102 through various ports (e.g., a port 118) in an interconnect 120.

Although the specific read/write control electronics 110 included on theshared control board 102 may vary from one implementation to another,the read/write control electronics of FIG. 1 include at least aprocessor 112, volatile memory 114 (e.g., DRAM), and a secondarynon-volatile memory 116 (e.g., Flash). As indicated by dotted lineswithin the storage drive 108, the read/write control electronics 110represent a collection of electronics traditionally included within anenclosure of the storage drive 108 that have, in FIG. 1, been displacedto the shared control board 102.

When the read/write control electronics 110 recognize a coupling to anew (unidentified) storage drive, the primary non-volatile memory 106 ofthat drive may not be accessible until the corresponding (e.g.,drive-specific) adaptives are identified, loaded into the volatilememory 114, and used to pre-configure read/write settings for the dataaccess operation to the primary non-volatile memory 106. In animplementation where the storage drive 108 is permanently coupled to theshared control board 102, these adaptives may be stored in the secondarynon-volatile memory 116, such as in association with an identifier forthe storage drive 108. However, this scenario is complicated if thestorage drive 108 is designed to removably couple to the shared controlboard 102. In this case, the read/write control electronics 110 may, atany time, identify a coupling to a new drive (e.g., one of millions ofdrives in market circulation). Accordingly, the read/write controlelectronics 110 needs a way to locate and load the adaptives for the newdrive even if the drive has never previously been coupled to the sharedcontrol board 102.

The herein disclosed technology provides a number of solutions to thischallenge. In one implementation, the storage drive 108 stores a uniqueself-identifier. For example, the storage drive may include an NFC chip,an RFID tag, or a barcode that is readable by the shared control board.Upon retrieving a small (e.g., less than 10 kB) identifier from thestorage drive 108, the read/write control electronics 110 access anexternal (e.g. cloud-hosted) library storing a sets of adaptives thatare each associated with a different self-identifying code permanentlystored on a different storage drive in market circulation.

In yet still another implementation, the read/write control electronics110 retrieve a subset of critical adaptives (e.g., the most importantadaptives for data access) from a small memory chip or tag on thestorage drive 108. Using this information, the read/write controlelectronics 110 configure the storage drive 108 to read the remainingadaptives from the primary storage memory 110 or an alternate storagemedium. In yet still another implementation, the read/write controlelectronics 110 are programmed to recover the adaptives from the primarynon-volatile memory 106 without first recovering any adaptives from asecondary memory source. For example, the adaptives may be stored at alinear bit density (bits per inch (BPI)) and/or track density (tracksper inch (TPI)) that is so low that the corresponding data may be readfrom the such regions when the device is operating in a “passive flyheight mode”—a mode where the heaters on a read/write head are notturned on—without first loading any of the drive's adaptives into thevolatile memory 114. These and other implementations are explored indetail with respect to the following figures.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example system 200 including a storage drive 201that lacks traditional storage and processing resources for storing andloading adaptives usable to configure the storage drive 201 for accessto a primary storage medium. By example and without limitation, theprimary storage medium 202 of the storage drive 201 is a magnetic disk.In other implementations, the primary storage medium 202 of the storagedrive 201 is a solid state drive (SSD). In still other implementations,the primary storage medium 202 is a tape storage drive.

In FIG. 2, several components traditionally included within a storagedrive's enclosure have been displaced to an external control board 204including a read/write controller 208, volatile memory 210, and anon-volatile memory 206 (e.g., Flash). The read/write controller 208includes control electronics (e.g., hardware and software) forgenerating control signals effective to read data from and write data tothe primary storage medium 202 of the storage drive 201 as well as tothe primary storage media of one or more other storage drives (notshown) that are also communicatively coupled to the external controlboard 204 In at least one implementation, the storage drive 201 does nothave an internal processor that generates read/write signals. Forexample, the read/write controller 208 on the external control board 204includes the primary system on chip (SOC) that is used when reading andwriting data to the primary storage medium 202.

The non-volatile memory 206 of the external control board 204 storesfirmware commands 212 executed by the read/write controller 208 whenreading and writing data to the storage drive. However, successfulexecution of such commands (e.g., within acceptable error margins)depends on capability of the read/write controller 208 to firstascertain the drive's adaptives and load read/write settings 214 intovolatile memory 210 that are based on the adaptives.

When the external control board 204 detects a new coupling to thestorage drive 201, the read/write controller 208 executes a firmwarecommand 212 to retrieve key information from the storage drive 201 thatis usable by the read/write controller 208 and/or an external host toidentify a storage position of the drive's associated adaptives. As usedherein, a “new coupling” may refer to a new physical coupling between adrive and the read/write controller 208 or, alternatively, to a power-onsequence of a drive, such as a power-on sequence that occurs responsiveto a new physical drive coupling or a drive reboot.

In one implementation, the read/write controller 208 retrieves a uniqueidentifier 216 that is stored on or within an enclosure of the storagedrive 201 at a location external to the primary storage medium 202. Forexample, the unique identifier 216 may be bar code scannable by a barcode reader on the external control board 204. In anotherimplementation, the unique identifier 216 is included within an RFID tagor smart label readable by an RFID reader located on the externalcontrol board 204. In yet still another implementation, the uniqueidentifier is included within an NFC tag readable by an NFC readerlocated on the external control board 204. In still otherimplementations, the storage drive 201 includes a small flash chip thatstores the drive's unique identifier 216. In yet still otherimplementations, the storage drive 201 includes a preamp chip with aunique identifier that is used as the drive's unique identifier. Theread/write controller 208 transmits the unique identifier 216 to a host218 which may, in some cases, further communicate the unique identifier216 to an external server via an internet connection.

The host 218 (or in some cases, the external server in communicationwith the 1 host 218) queries a local or web-based database (e.g.,adaptive archive 220) with the unique identifier 216 and the databaseanswers the query with a set of adaptives stored in the database inassociation with the unique identifier 216. The host 218 transmits theretrieved adaptives back to the read/write controller 208 on theexternal control board 204 and the read/write controller 208, in turn,loads the volatile memory 210 with the adaptives and/or with read/writesettings 214 based on the retrieved adaptives.

In one implementation, the read/write controller 208 stores theretrieved adaptives in the non-volatile memory 206 of the externalcontrol board 204 so that the adaptives may be optionally loaded intothe volatile memory 210 at any time while the storage drive 201 remainscoupled to the external control board 204. When the storage drive 201 isdecoupled from the external control board 204, the storage blocksstoring the associated set of adaptives within the non-volatile memory206 of the external control board 204 may be freed up for overwrite.

Once the volatile memory 210 is loaded with read/write settings 214 forthe storage drive 201 that are configured based on the retrievedadaptives, the read/write controller 208 may begin to execute read/writecommands targeting the storage drive 201.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example system 300 with a storage drive 301that lacks traditional storage and processing resources for storing andloading adaptives to configure the storage drive 301 for read and writeaccess to its primary storage medium 302. In addition to the primarystorage medium 302, the storage drive 301 includes a small, secondarystorage medium 322 which may be, for example, a flash chip or RFID tag.In one example implementation, the secondary storage medium 322 is aFlash chip of less than a 1 KB of capacity. The secondary storage medium322 is configured to store a subset of the most critical adaptives forthe primary storage medium 302. As used herein, the term “criticaladaptives” (e.g., critical adaptives 324) refers to a subset ofadaptives for the storage drive 301 that are alone sufficient toconfigure read/write settings for a read of remaining adaptives (e.g.,non-critical adaptives 326) from a location on the primary storagemedium 302 within a predefined, acceptable error margin.

The storage drive 301 is coupled to an external control board 304 thatincludes at least a read/write controller 308, volatile memory 310, anda secondary non-volatile memory 306 (e.g., Flash). When the externalcontrol board 304 detects a new coupling to the storage drive 301 or apower-on sequence of the storage drive 301, the read/write controller308 executes a firmware command 312 to retrieve key information from thesecondary storage medium 322. According to one implementation, this keyinformation includes a subset of the drive's adaptives (e.g., thecritical adaptives 324) that allow the read/write controller 308 toretrieve remaining (e.g., non-critical adaptives 326) adaptives from adifferent storage medium, such as a location on the primary storagemedium 302.

For example, the read/write controller 308 may be configured to readcritical adaptives 324 from the secondary storage medium 322, load thecritical adaptives 324 into the volatile memory 310, and execute a readoperation according to read settings based on the critical adaptives 324to retrieve a second subset of the drive's adaptives (e.g., thenon-critical adaptives 326) from a location on the primary storagemedium 302.

In one implementation where the primary storage medium 302 is a magneticdisk, the critical adaptives stored on the secondary storage medium 322include fly height (e.g., variables utilized to compute a transferfunction between a heater and corresponding fly height) and/or servoinformation that is sufficient to allow the read/write controller 308 toseek an actuator arm of the storage drive 301 to a storage position ofthe non-critical adaptives for the storage drive 301. In oneimplementation, the critical adaptives 324 additionally include a trackID of the first track that the read element “sees” when moving off theramp, eccentricity of each encoded track, and corrections for repeatablerun-out.

In the above example, the non-critical adaptives may include, forexample, adaptives utilized in mitigating noise within read and writechannels, adaptives identifying faulty sectors and defect locations, theavailable drive capacity, drive health information, and modified flyheight parameters (e.g., parameters that have been re-calibrated duringthe life of the drive to improve upon default fly height parametersdetermined during initial drive calibration). After retrieving thecritical adaptives 324 from the secondary storage medium 322 andconfiguring read/write settings of the read/write controller 308according to the critical adaptives 324, the read/write controller readsthe non-critical adaptives 326 from the primary storage medium 302. Forexample, the storage location of the non-critical adaptives 326 may be adefault location (e.g., defined in firmware stored on the externalcontrol board 304) or, alternatively, a location that is specified bydata stored along with the critical adaptives 324 in the secondarystorage medium 322. After reading the non-critical adaptives 326 andconfiguring remaining read/write settings according to such adaptives,the read/write controller 308 is ready to execute host-initiated dataaccess operations to read and write user data to the primary storagemedium 302.

Aspects of the storage drive 301 and/or the external control board 304not specifically described herein may be the same or similar tolike-named components described with respect to FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates another system 400 with an example storage drive 401that lacks traditional storage and processing resources for storing andloading adaptives used to configure a read/write controller 408 toaccess to a primary storage media 402 of the storage drive 401.According to one implementation, some or all read/write controlelectronics of the storage drive 401 are located on external controlboard 404, which may be shared between multiple storage drivesconcurrently coupled to the external control board. By example andwithout limitation, the external control board 404 of FIG. 4 is shown toinclude the read/write controller 408, secondary non-volatile memory406, and volatile memory 410.

In FIG. 4, the adaptives used to configure read/write settings foraccess to the disks within the primary storage media 402 are stored onone of the disks of the primary storage media 402. Typically, theread/write controller 408 is not able to read data from the disk whenoperating in a passive fly height mode without experiencing errors inexcess of those correctable by the device's error correction code (ECC).According to one implementation of the disclosed technology, however,the adaptives for the primary storage media 402 are stored in alow-density zone 424 at such a low bit density (BPI) and/or trackdensity (TPI) that they are readable without experiencing read errors inexcess of the maximum number of errors that may are correctable by theECC of the storage drive 401. Notably, in HAMR drives, high TPI can beachieved by increasing laser power that is used to locally heat thestorage medium during recording.

As used herein, “passive fly height” mode refers to a mode of thestorage drive 401 where heaters used for controlling fly height ofread/write elements remain disabled. When the storage drive 401 readsdata in a passive fly height mode, localized heating is not used toprotrude read/write elements on the head toward the disk by any degreeand fine position control of the head is therefore not available.

In one implementation, the storage drive 401 stores user data in a mainstore 426 on the primary storage medium and system data in a system zone422. Adaptives utilized when performing reads and writes to these zonesare stored in the low-density zone 424.

In one implementation, data stored in the low-density zone 424 is storedat a linear density that is lower than the linear density of the datathat in both the main store 426 and the system zone 422. Consequently,the adaptives stored in this zone can be read while the device isoperating in the passive fly height mode without generating errors inexcess of those correctable by the ECC employed.

In one implementation, some data stored in the system zone 422 is storedat a lower linear and/or track density (BPI or TPI) than data in themain store 426; however, the system zone 422 is not readable in thepassive fly-height mode (e.g., read errors exceed a correctable number).

In one implementation, the low-density zone 424 is a single contiguousstorage region (e.g., as shown); in another implementation, thelow-density zone 424 is distributed across two or more non-contiguousregions on the primary storage media 402. In one implementation, thelow-density zone 424 is split or duplicated across multiple differentstorage media (e.g., three magnetic disks) of the storage drive 401. Inanother implementation, adaptives for the storage drive 401 areredundantly stored in a low-density zone on each of multiple diskswithin the storage drive 401.

By example and without limitation, the low-density zone 424 is shown tobe internal to the system zone 4201. In some devices, the system zone422 is subjected to certain write protections to prevent overwrite ofcritical system data managed by the read/write controller 408.Therefore, this zone may be an ideal storage solution for adaptives thatremain unchanged throughout the device's lifetime. Adaptives that areperiodically updated may, in contrast, be stored in a different regionof disk storage that is not subjected to the heightened writeprotections of the system zone 422.

FIG. 5 illustrates another example storage system 500 including multiplestorage drives 502, 504, 506, 508 that implement the disclosedtechnology and removably couple to a shared control board 510. Likeother implementations disclosed herein, the multiple storage drives 502,504, 506, and 508 lack traditional internal storage and processingresources for storing and loading adaptives specific to each drive. Eachof the multiple storage drives 502, 504, 506, and 510 includes one ormore disks (e.g., a disk 518) and one or more actuators (not shown) thatperforms radial seeks across a corresponding disk surface to positionread/write elements on a head to access the disk surface.

The shared control board 510 includes read/write and power circuitry forexecuting data access operations on each of the coupled storage drives502, 504, 506, and 508. By example and without limitation, the sharedcontrol board 510 includes a system on chip (SOC) control circuit 522,memory (DRAM) 520, power control circuitry (power circuit) 526, andflash memory 534.

The SOC control circuit 522 includes a programmable processing core thatutilizes firmware stored in the flash memory 534 to provide top levelcontrol for the multiple storage drives 502 504, 506, 508.

Responsive to detection of a new coupling between the shared controlboard 510 and a storage drive (e.g., one of the storage drives 502, 504,506, and 508), the SOC 522 executes firmware instructions for retrievingadaptives for the storage drive and loading those adaptives into thevolatile memory 520. These adaptives may, for example, be accessed andretrieved according to any of the solutions discussed above with respectto FIGS. 1-4. For example, the SOC 522 may retrieve an identifier fromthe newly-coupled storage device and include the identifier in adatabase request for the associated adaptives (e.g., a request to anexternal, web-based database). In other implementations, criticaladaptives are stored on a small secondary memory internal to each of thestorage drives (e.g., a flash chip, RFID tag, NFC tag), and thesecritical adaptives are used to configure the SOC 522 to read remainingadaptives from the disk(s) associated with the critical adaptives. Inyet another implementation, adaptives for accessing a disk are stored onthe disk at a linear and/or bit density that is low enough to permit areading of such adaptives while the storage drive operates in a passivefly height mode. In one implementation the retrieval and loading ofadaptives is performed responsive to a power-on sequence of a storagedrive (e.g., a power sequence that initiates responsive to coupling to anew drive to the shared control board).

The shared control board 510 further incorporates a separate interfacecontrol circuit—interface selection processor 524—that utilizes internalprogramming to act as a switch controller to selectively controlswitches of a R/W switch network 528 to connect various components toenable data access to each of the storage cartridges to the SOC controlcircuit 522 and also to selectively control switches of a power controlswitch network 530 to selectively connect a power circuit 526 (e.g.,enabling access to a select one of the storage drives 502, 504, 506, 508at a time). The SOC 522 and the interface selection processor 524 eachcommunicate with an external control circuit, such as a host, localserver, rack controller, etc. via an interface connector 532.

The embodiments of the disclosed technology described herein areimplemented as logical steps in one or more computer systems. Thelogical operations of the presently disclosed technology are implemented(1) as a sequence of processor-implemented steps executing in one ormore computer systems and (2) as interconnected machine or circuitmodules within one or more computer systems. The implementation is amatter of choice, dependent on the performance requirements of thecomputer system implementing the disclosed technology. Accordingly, thelogical operations making up the embodiments of the disclosed technologydescribed herein are referred to variously as operations, steps,objects, or modules. Furthermore, it should be understood that logicaloperations may be performed in any order, adding and omitting asdesired, unless explicitly claimed otherwise or a specific order isinherently necessitated by the claim language.

The above specification, examples, and data provide a completedescription of the structure and use of exemplary embodiments of thedisclosed technology. Since many embodiments of the disclosed technologycan be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosedtechnology, the disclosed technology resides in the claims hereinafterappended. Furthermore, structural features of the different embodimentsmay be combined in yet another embodiment without departing from therecited claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: detecting a coupling between a read/write controller and a storage drive including a primary storage medium; and responsive to the detection of the coupling, reading adaptives for the primary storage medium from the primary storage medium, the adaptives being stored at a lower linear density than other data on the primary storage medium.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein reading the adaptives further comprises reading the adaptives with a read element read in a passive fly height mode.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary storage medium is a disk.
 4. A system comprising: a hardware controller removably coupled to a storage drive including a primary storage medium, the hardware controller configured to: detect a coupling between a read/write controller and a storage drive including a primary storage medium; responsive to detecting the coupling, read critical adaptives from a secondary storage medium of the storage drive, the secondary storage medium being positioned within a same enclosure as a primary storage medium; read non-critical adaptives for the primary storage medium from the primary storage medium; and load the critical adapatives and the non-critical adaptives into volatile memory to configure the system for access to the primary storage medium.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the hardware controller reads the critical adaptives prior to the non-critical adaptives.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the primary storage medium is a disk.
 7. One or more memory devices storing processor-readable instructions for executing a computer process, the computer process comprising: detecting a coupling between a read/write controller and a storage drive including a primary storage medium; and responsive to the detection of the coupling, reading adaptives for the primary storage medium from the primary storage medium, the adaptives being stored at a lower linear density than other data on the primary storage medium.
 8. The one or more memory devices of claim 7, wherein reading the adaptives further comprises reading the adaptives in a passive fly height mode.
 9. The one or more memory devices of claim 7, wherein the primary storage medium is a disk.
 10. The one or more memory devices of claim 7, wherein the primary storage medium is a disk and wherein the adaptives are read from a secure zone of a disk. 